Appalachian folk singer Gabrielle Hope Shares the "silly, simple, and imperfect" Recipe for Viral TikTok Song 'me and you'

Only released to streaming platforms and included in our Best New Country roundup last week, Gabrielle Hope's 'me and you' has felt like a long time coming.

After originally sharing a clip of her playing the song to TikTok almost a year ago on 26 January 2024, the 19-year-old Appalachian folk singer based in Shenandoah Valley amassed over 40 million views across the 25 or so videos that followed, filmed in the woods and fields around her home in Harrisonburg and featuring everything from her own introspective original songs to Woody Guthrie covers, cats falling from trees and her dog Piper.

@gabriellehopemusic me and u by me!#originalsong #music #folk #folkmusic #bigtheif #phoebebridgers #meandyou #love #funny #cute #foryoupage #fyp #viral #singer #singersongwriter ♬ original sound - gabrielle hope!

"i wrote this tune one year ago with absolutely no idea what i was doing with my life!!" she wrote on TikTok on the eve of the release of 'me and you.' "i barely knew how to play the guitar and had only written 3 songs, this song has changed my life in a way i couldn't have dreamed of."

Inspired by her contemporaries in the Appalachian Folk space such as Jean Ritchie, Tia Blake, and Connie Converse, she sings end-of-the-worldly songs about love and loss, but anyone that comes to Gabrielle Hope's music will first be taken by her beautifully unusual and remarkable voice. With its strangely childlike, high-pitched inflection, her voice is almost uncompromisingly "girlish", illuminating her naive field recordings that end up sounding like Joanna Newsom recording twee Appalachian anti-folk songs for the Juno soundtrack.

@gabriellehopemusic me and you - by me!! #folk #mountains #singer #banjo #country ♬ original sound - gabrielle hope!

Recorded entirely from Gabrielle's home in Virginia, the fourth song she ever wrote and the first song she ever posted to TikTok was 'me and you,' and her growing legion of followers (is it too early to give her fans the collective noun 'The Hopefuls'?) have been patiently waiting ever since for her to release the song to streaming platforms.

"'me and you' was one of the first songs I've written and I wrote it in 5 minutes as a joke," she told Holler about the song. "I had no clue how to play the guitar at the time, so I wrote it with the only chords I knew: C, F, and G. I wanted 'me and you' to highlight my experience of love: silly, simple, and imperfect!"

"I’ve always loved recordings that feel like you are sitting next to someone singing; you can hear their smile, laughter, and humanity," she told us about the recording. "After trying in studios, I chose to self-produce and record the song in my bedroom. I think the recording mirrors my writing process: silly, simple, and imperfect!"

there’s me and you and you and me

and both of us

guess that makes we

and me and you will never be apart

i knew you were the only one

when you said that liked

my mommas orange italian knitted scarf

and i like the way your face is held

by coveralls and button ups

and the oil from your truck when it won’t start

you like the way i play the strings

and cartwheel when i can’t think of things and you like the way my hair falls in its part

there’s me and you and you and me and both of us guess that makes we

and me and you will never be apart

i’m your lover, i’m your friend

it’s me and you to the end

till we’re both so deaf we can’t hear each other talk

but i won’t care i’ll hold your hand

we’ll eat ice cream and sit in sand,

tap three times to tell her you know what

i love you!

there’s me and you and you and me

and both of us guess that makes we

and me and you will never be apart

'me and you' is out now on Music Soup/Darkroom Records. Follow Gabrielle Hope on TikTok for more music.